


Our Secret Pact

by CaptainKaysno



Category: Power Rangers Ninja Storm
Genre: Blood and Injury, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Graphic Description, Hunter is having a rough night, M/M, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:54:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26938462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainKaysno/pseuds/CaptainKaysno
Summary: Any second now Hunter is going to get up and turn the sink light on.He is. It’s just a question of when exactly he’s going to be able to get up without feeling like he’s wearing concrete boots. If that moment ever comes."You know," Cam's voice is quiet and drowsy in the otherwise silent room but it nearly sends Hunter out of his seat and on his ass. The blood roaring in his ears deafening him and making him miss the next few words Cam says, "- are usually asleep around 2am. Not sitting in a dark room staring at nothing."
Relationships: Hunter Bradley/Cameron Watanabe
Comments: 12
Kudos: 25





	Our Secret Pact

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is the first story that I've ever written for this fandom but I've been a huge fan of Power Rangers Ninja Storm since it first aired when I was 5/6. Even when I was little I thought that Cam and Hunter would grow up to become husbands! I really enjoyed writing this story and would love to write another one with this pairing. 
> 
> The title came from the poem The Bluebird by Charles Bukowski. It's a poem that I've always enjoyed and highly recommend to anybody else that would like to read it.

Any second now Hunter is going to get up and turn the sink light on. 

He is. It’s just a question of when exactly he’s going to be able to get up without feeling like he’s wearing concrete boots. If that moment ever comes.

"You know," Cam's voice is quiet and drowsy in the otherwise silent room but it nearly sends Hunter out of his seat and on his ass. The blood roaring in his ears deafening him and making him miss the next few words Cam says, "- are usually asleep around 2am. Not sitting in a dark room staring at nothing." 

Hunter closes his eyes, shame and guilt and embarrassment an iron ball in his stomach. He must have woken Cam up when he'd gotten out of bed. "I could say the same thing about you."

"I was looking for you." Cam states, socked feet padding across the tiled kitchen floors. He stops behind where Hunter is sitting and stands there for a long moment of silent contemplation before, "I'm going to make some hot chocolate. Do you want one marshmallow or two?"

"One."

Cam hums a quiet acknowledgment, flicks on the sink light and starts to rummage through the cabinets. Hunter unfocuses his eyes again but it's a lot harder to lose himself in the nightmare when Cam is making the familiar racket of home that should be grating but is instead gratifying. Hunter tries to cling to it but after a few moments Cam finds the things that he's looking for and the kitchen goes silent again.

_The blood splattering his clothes is so much more than he had anticipated. It seems to cover every inch of him as he stares down at the man in front of him._

_"Sensei!" Tori cries, rushing forward. Tori doesn't need that blood on her but when he reaches out towards her it feels like every part of him is moving through syrup. She kneels down next to the lump laying on the floor in a pool of blood and turns to glare tearfully at him, "Hunter! How could you?"_

_"I - I didn't know that you were actually going to do it," Blake mutters as he rushes past him. Hunter checks him desperately, relieved to find that not a drop of blood had gotten onto him. Nothing to mark him the monster that he isn't._

_A flurry of activity catches his attention and Cam breaks through the silently crying Dustin and the glaring Shane who let him pass without even trying to stop him._

_Hunter realizes in a panic that he can't let him see this and he rushes forward to grab Cam by the shoulders._

_"Dad!" Cam yells, voice far away and distant like it's not coming from him at all. His glasses are opaque with fog, "Hunter what did you do?! What have you done?!"_

_Hunter doesn't want him to know and he pulls Cam into a subdued hold that has him clawing at Hunter’s hands. After several moments Cam breaks down into equally distant sobs that bounce around the cave and steadily increase in volume until Hunter thinks that he's going deaf or crazy or if he's lucky both._

_"Son," Dad's voice erupts from behind him. His voice is unbearably strong just like Cam's sobs and is equally unbearable, "How could you? How could you have done this?"_

_"He killed you!" Hunter tries to yell back but his voice comes out whispered and dull, "Lothor said -"_

_"You listened to the man that imprisoned me?" Sensei Omino spits, suddenly sitting next to Tori, "You listened to the man who murdered your parents?"_

_"If I had known that you would become this-" His mother's voice is tearful as she comes into view in front of where Cam has gone rigid in his arms. "I would never have let you into our family."_

_"Mom, please." Hunter pleads, hand leaving a bloody print on her white gown screaming as she fades away again. "Please, I didn't know! I promise I didn't! Please come back!"_

_"We're gonna have to put you down now, Hunter," Shane says, somehow behind him now. Hunter whirls around, Cam suddenly light in his arms._

_Tori, Dustin, Shane, and Blake all have their weapons pointed at him._

_Lothor stands behind, a small smile on his face. "I would never have thought that a man like you would finally have gotten rid of that pest of a rodent! Of course, thank you for getting rid of that worthless excuse of a nephew while you were at it."_

_What? Hunter looks down at Cam's limp face staring up at him as blood pours out of his chest._

_"No!" Hunter screams, the sound of Lothor's laugh bouncing around the cave as the Rangers get ready to pounce him._

The sharp sound of something being set down in front of him has him actually jumping this time. The chair slams against the ground as the crimson mug on the table wobbles dangerously. It's only Cam's quick reflexes that keeps it from tipping over but a few droplets of it fall onto the table anyway.

Hunter stares at them before finally muttering, "I'll get a paper towel for that."

"I think that can wait a few seconds," Cam says, the quiet tink of his own green mug setting down on the table making Hunter go red with shame as he realizes that there's no way that Cam had set down his any harder. "Hunter? You need to sit down."

"It's gonna stain the table," Hunter says, refusing to look up to see Cam's face. "I need to clean it up. The last thing that we need is to have to buy a new table because I'm a fucking idiot who -"

"Hunter," Cam's stern voice is like a whip and he looks up despite himself. Cam's expression isn’t the embarrassment or annoyance that he expected. Instead Cam just looks worried. "You're shaking. You need to sit down."

When Hunter opens his mouth to try to protest again, Cam snaps, "I don't give a fuck about the table, Hunter. We can buy a new one anytime we want. Sit. Down."

Hunter reaches down with shaking hands, and oh Cam was right about the whole shaking thing, and sets it back down before basically collapsing into it while Cam watches him like a hawk. Hunter raises his hands in a little ta-da gesture to try and reassure him but instead it just makes Cam's frown deepen but he walks over to the paper towels. 

"I'm guessing that that wasn't one of your usual nightmares?" Cam asks, pulling off a few of the paper towels and handing them to Hunter as he walks back to his seat. Hunter swallows heavily and meticulously begins to wipe at the table's surface, realizing a little too late at the out that Cam's giving him by letting him pretend to be busy. 

The shame curls up into an even tighter ball and Hunter shakes his head. "Nah," he says, trying and miserably failing at sounding nonchalant. The image of blood pouring out Cam's chest superimposing behind his eyelids when he blinks. "It was a - a pretty bad one."

Cam nods, reaching down to cup his mug with both hands. "What do you need?" 

Hunter needs to go back in time and tell off his younger self for being a fucking idiot. He needs to stop being the crybaby that is keeping Cam up on the day of a presentation that he's pretty sure is only a few hours away. He needs to stop ruining Cam's life and let him get with somebody normal who didn't try to kill his dad on the orders of the man who had killed Hunter's own parents. 

He needs to _know._

"Why don't you hate me?" he demands and Cam splutters, coughs a few times as he waves Hunter away from where he's hovering over him. Hunter hesitantly moves back over to his own seat and slouches down in defeat. 

Cam takes a few deep breaths and then glares at him. "What kind of a question is that?" he demands.

"Sorry," Hunter mumbles and Cam shakes his head. 

"No." Gone is understanding Cam who gives him outs and ways to avoid the conversation. This is Detective Cam who wants to know his every thought and feeling. "I want to know why you asked." 

Hunter sighs and Cam gives him a pointed look over the table.

It's no good to argue with Cam when he's in the mood and waiting him out has never worked. This is the man who was forbidden to train as a ninja and then tried to catch up on at least two years worth of learning in a matter of weeks and achieved mastery in a month. Persistence is a trait that Cam has in spades. 

"Remember when I was working with Lothor." 

If Cam is thrown by the non-sequitur then he doesn't appear to be. "I remember.”

"Do you remember why?"

"...It's a hard thing to forget." 

"I - I tried to kill your dad, Cam." Hunter whispers, heart hammering in his chest. He fights back an awful laugh that bubbles out of him anyway, "I wouldn't be so fucking friendly with my dad's killer." 

"I'm aware," Cam says distractedly either not seeing or not noticing Hunter's flinch before he zones back in with a narrowed stare, "Dad and I forgave you a long time ago. Hunter, we've been dating for five months. Don't tell me that you've felt guilty about this the whole time?" 

Hunter has felt guilty about it this whole time but most of the time he can ignore it. Keeps the guilt and the anger and the shame locked up nice and tight inside his chest where it can't hurt anybody and can't be used against him except for when it slips over at the most inconvenient of times.

He shrugs when he realizes that Cam is still expecting a reply. 

"Lothor used you, Hunter." Cam snaps, surprising Hunter enough to snap his head up to look at him. Cam gives him a heated look, "He's planned it for _years_. He killed your parents disguised as my father, and he made it look convincing and then when you and Blake were at your most vulnerable he swooped in and put his final plan into motion. It's not that you were stupid enough to fall for it and more like the bastard ruthlessly engineered your downfall. I dare you to find somebody who wouldn't fall for that." 

"You wouldn't have."

Cam scoffs, "You know that I'm an arrogant asshole, Hunter, I would've fallen for it hook, line, and sinker because I would've thought that I'd be smart enough to see if something was wrong. Hunter, look at me. Please."

Cam’s smile is a thin line when Hunter manages to lift his head up enough to meet his eyes, "Hunter, you didn't kill my father. You helped put your parents actual murderer away where he'll never be able to hurt anyone again. You did everything that could possibly have been expected of you and then overcame what was supposed to be your undoing with the kind of attitude that I envy from you but now you're gonna let Lothor make you feel out of control. Seems un-Bradley of you."

Cam’s always had a way of laying things out in a way that makes everything seem to make perfect sense and how he can manage to do it at 2am is kind of a miracle but already the hard lump in his chest is slowly loosening. 

"It is very un-Bradley of me isn't it," Hunter admits, reaching down to finally take a sip of his hot chocolate before spitting it back out when he realizes how cold it's gotten. 

Cam takes a sip of his in solidarity and wrinkles his nose. "Here I'll go put them in the microwave, maybe they're still salvageable." 

"Nah," Hunter says, stretching out of his seat. He reaches a hand out and Cam lets himself be tugged out of his seat so that he's pressed against Hunter's chest. "We both have shit to do, we should just go back to sleep."

"You sure?" Cam asks, leaning his head back a little so he can look Hunter in the eyes. It's ridiculously hot and Hunter leans down to snag a chaste kiss. 

"Yeah, I'm sure. At least it'll be more comfortable than sitting in the kitchen for hours." 

Cam hums an agreement and it's a matter of quick routine before they're both in bed. Cam doesn't usually like to be touched when he's trying to go to sleep but he pulls Hunter's arm over his waist. 

"I love you," Cam says, and then very quietly, "Don't doubt it again, Hunter."

Hunter presses a kiss against the side of Cam’s neck, “I won’t. I love you.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this please leave a comment and a kudos!


End file.
